Atta Muhammad Nur

Atta Muhammad Nur (1964-) was an Afghan Tajik warlord who served as Governor of Balkh Province from 2004 to 2018. He was known for his rivalry with Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum, his former ally, between 1993 and 2003.

Biography
Atta Muhammad Nur was born in Mazar-i-Sharif, Balkh Province, Afghanistan in 1964, and he fought with the Jamiat-e Islami Mujahideen during the Soviet-Afghan War of the 1980s. He joined Abdul Rashid Dostum's Junbish-i-Milli party during the 1990s, but ideological differences led to Nur splitting in 1993. In 1994, Nur was defeated in his attempt to seize Mazar-i-Sharif from Dostum, and he was later forced to ally with Dostum and other Northern Alliance warlords to stop the rise of the Taliban. After Hamid Karzai's government came to power, Nur and Dostum returned to being rivals, and Dostum ultimately conceded Mazar and most of Balkh to Nur in exchange for Nur renouncing his intention of contesting Dostum's influence elsewhere in northern Afghanistan. From 2004 to 2018, Nur served as Governor of Balkh, and he was supported by the United States.